The state's Attorney Discipline Office renewed its request to the Professional Conduct Committee to recommend disbarment for Hillsboro attorney Leigh Bosse, who is accused of forging signatures on real estate documents.

Disciplinary Counsel Landya McCafferty asked the committee to reconsider its Sept. 19 decision, which suspended Bosse's law license for six months. McCafferty argued that the committee's findings give "more than ample justification for disbarment."

Bosse's attorney, David Garfunkel, asked the committee to deny the state's motion, saying it "cites no new law and makes no new arguments."

At the earliest, the committee could consider the new motions at its next meeting Oct. 17.

The Attorney Discipline Office would not comment further, because the matter is ongoing. Neither Bosse nor his attorney returned calls for comment.

The charges stem from February 2003. According to facts agreed on by both sides, Bosse signed an Emerald Lake landowner's name on two real estate documents - an exclusive listing agreement and a purchase-and-sale agreement - for property he hoped to sell and submitted the documents to a listing service. Bosse lost his real estate license in 2004 for the incident and is facing criminal charges for forgery.

At the original committee hearing, McCafferty asked for disbarment and Bosse asked for public censure.

In its decision to suspend his license, the committee concluded that Bosse had "violated a fundamental duty" of honesty and integrity and that he had acted "deliberately and intentionally," with a "dishonest and selfish motive." The committee rejected disbarment because Bosse already lost his real estate license and admitted to the offense and because he believed the landowner would be forwarding the documents.

In McCafferty's motion, filed last week, she said that it is undisputed that Bosse committed "egregious misconduct" and that such an act of dishonesty "seriously adversely reflects on a lawyer's fitness to practice."

"A sanction less than disbarment in this case would have the perverse effect of both reducing public confidence in the Bar and harming the reputation of the legal profession," she wrote.

Garfunkel responded in his motion that McCafferty is repeating the same arguments that were already made before the committee. He wrote that she ignored Supreme Court precedent, which distinguishes between single acts of deceit and repeated conduct.

"In its decision, this Committee properly places Mr. Bosse's conduct in 'context' and also properly applies 'the mitigating factors which also justify a sanction less than disbarment,' " he wrote.

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By SHIRA SCHOENBERG

Monitor staff